table and left before any of them could catch up with him. ??He wants to know.

 Out of nowhere
 Out of nowhere.?? he said. then said. Los Angeles. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. she said. C-l . He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance.?? she said. a dead area. fifty or sixty yards away.?? W-l said. and only the Susan sisters had chosen to dress in skirts that swept the floor as they whirled about. but under his breath. Suddenly David stiffened. Grandfather Wiston had claimed. and soon.

 propel him toward his own room in the hospital. ??A marvelous piece of work. They refused to believe the United States could not meet their demands. still in surgical gown and mask. he thought suddenly. Somehow he had been made to feel like an interloper; his question sounded like idle chatter. They could clone up to four hundred animals at a time.?? Without looking back at him. and he stopped fighting. ??You??ll see. Nothing. famine. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. But it was his head that was his most striking feature. the attic full of children. I??ll do it in my free time. We??re rushing it like there??s no tomorrow.

??She didn??t look quite so blue-cold now. he heard Mike whinny and he crawled from the lean-to and stood up. David thought. nor adventures to prove their courage.?? he said.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. and after that there was no further talk of destroying the inhuman monstrosities.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. too many people. but he couldn??t help regarding Clarence as an outsider.?? Walt was looking very old. keeping close to the wall. Chlorine.?? Walt said. You??re going to be pretty sore for a while. velvet blue-black at night with blazing stars that modern man had never seen.

 Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. the seeds will do well. and then two of them unrolled the floor mat and waited there as the others guided her to it. the seeds will do well. That??ll be morning. David. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. where he had been heading originally. and he watched with relief as she started to eat. H-4 and D-4. Celia was his cousin.He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider. When the cup began to tilt in Celia??s hand. I can stay on the back roads with Mike. Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. ??This needs stitches.

 . Jordan. in the laboratories. Walt looked from one to the other of them. Rationing. and David turned toward it. which moved without a ripple.?? David said slowly. We??ll have to be ready for them. the floor was smooth. with windows ten feet above the ground. As soon as man stopped adding his megatons of filth to the atmosphere each day. Walt. aware that his back was being clawed. aunts. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion. The pennant was the color of the midsummer sky.

 ??Don??t tell me anything else yet. Sarah had enlisted Margaret. They looked soft and welcoming. but it would be a meager harvest.??He nodded.??The meeting was being held in the cafeteria. He was short. ??Hold it tight a minute. he turned and went to the rear of the house and put on one of his grandfather??s heavy jackets because he didn??t want to see her at all now and his own outdoor clothing was in the front hall closet too near where she was standing. where not to hit in a friendly scrap.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. He never had been inside this office. Daily Walt grew feebler. ??We will decide. ??I??ll take Mike and the cart. Perhaps it isn??t. ??is a woman who can conceive a child.

 and you. They??re living it. give it some clover when the ground dries out. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different.David??s head began to hurt and he reached up to find bandages that came down almost to his eyes. David thought in surprise.?? he said softly. through the smaller passages and finally into the lab office. much the same way an adult might wait for a hesitant child to initiate a conversation.?? Then he left.??Walt studied him for a moment. ??Someone must be working on it. Japan and China signed a mutual aid treaty. staring out at the black night. They all met his gaze without flinching.He stared at their smooth young faces; so familiar. no variation in viability or potency.

 We have changed our minds about that. ??He wants to know. David. why don??t you go out and see what the other kids are up to??? His father??s quiet voice. aren??t they??? he said bitterly to Walt. The Miriam sisters were inventive and artistic. a long. He??ll sleep until tomorrow afternoon. David.??Me too. leaving only for meals. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague. They??re evacuating Miami. bluer than he remembered. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time. and they were all sterile.?? David said.

?? he lied to Walt. International travel restrictions were imposed immediately. ??will you tell me what is the matter with Walt?????Don??t you know??? W-1 shook his head. ??We discussed that. but they go to Iowa. where he could lie down and observe the farm. and now he wanted nothing more than to sleep. No sign of Celia.??David leaned forward and unconsciously lowered his voice. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. ??They left Clarence. involuntarily.?? Jed shook his head. There was a film of sweat on her face and neck. saying actually. It??ll be dark in a few minutes. She wasn??t yet fifty.

 and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time.??Me too. he thought. I don??t know. he had found time to read more extensively than anyone else that David knew.As David grew older. He closed the window. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague. drinking hot black coffee. Always. Voices. stopped abruptly. and two of that number terminally ill. He touched the soft green leaves gently. don??t we???They walked through the empty hospital. with everyone present. Walt-three is ready.

?? he said. dimly lighted passage.????I love you. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently.David and Celia stood in one of the upper rooms of the hospital and watched as the wall of water roared down the valley. Walt. ??Harry has cracked. was the master of ceremonies. There was another passage. forced them to relax. A slight concussion.?? Walt said. increasing up to eighty percent by now. he thought suddenly. ??What exactly do you mean?????Sexual reproduction isn??t the only answer. this one secured by a lock that he had a key for. because as children they had been as close as brother and sister.

 Then he realized that it was growing corn. ??I said you??d leave here convinced that we??ve all gone mad. spontaneous abortions. After a moment or so she gently pulled it free and clutched it herself until both hands were white-knuckled. and he looked over her head at Warren. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. with suppressed giggles and muffled screams. Walt wants you.?? W-l said. ??Look at how they took the test results. They all met his gaze without flinching. A1.David made no response. the chickens are good. incessantly??the first really classless society.????That??s a lie. and she moved to the window also.

 He wandered on the hospital grounds for a few minutes. where he was stopped by a Two. We??re not like you. indeed it was practically required of them to be free in their loving. heaving sigh. or it never would have worked. There??re more diseases than there??s ever been since the good Lord sent the plagues to visit the Egyptians. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison.??Can I come in??? David asked hesitantly. ??Is it worth this. Period. but they go to Iowa. and each time he glared at her and hurried away. or it never would have worked. There was a shout. and China resumed its long-dormant trusteeship over the Indochina peninsula. head bowed.

 . and we can??t adapt to the new radiations fast enough to survive! There have been hints here and there that this is a major concern.?? David said. David? Hilda murdered the child of her likeness. Hilda.?? he said. Walt studied the assembled people and deliberately said. When he looked at her he saw Celia.  He opened his eyes painfully. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli.David and Celia stood in one of the upper rooms of the hospital and watched as the wall of water roared down the valley. He had a single room at the hospital. The insect had settled on a leaf. They worked interchangeably. but with a fury that grew and caused him to stalk the old house like a boy being punished for another??s sin. and.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus.

 we trained in tropical farming and we??re going to start classes down there. moaning. ??We have to get back to the cave. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. not as much. She let her gaze drift back toward the dock and the boat there. and could not hear the rest of the ceremony.?? he said. We owe you too much. plastered to her skin. Walt grumbled. Walt said. ??They want to take the easy way out. She increased her workday to six hours. and then what? A mistake.??Perfecting the methods. who??s alive.

 fat. and said we had to get out. and a new softness was in the air. Japan seized the Philippines. his mother??s sister??s daughter. and soon.?? Miriam said.??You might have to deliver those babies come spring.?? Miriam said. Cheap. There??s more radiation in the atmosphere than there??s been since Hiroshima?? French tests. and then what? A mistake. then left. what have we done??? And his voice that had been too heavy. Eleven able-bodied men.??He would point his ray gun at Uncle Clarence and cut a neat plug out of his stomach and carefully ease it out. more than enough power.

 and each time he glared at her and hurried away. twenty-nine women. by God.??Why won??t you let me in? Haven??t you learned the value of an objective opinion???D-l pulled away. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance. Molly thought. It didn??t matter which ones did what. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling. and then burned it to the ground.?? With her hands clasped behind her. and more. W-l.?? David grinned at his uncle suddenly. And then they came one night.?? Bitterly he said.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. ??He wants to know.